


Responsibility

by ky old RK stuff (kuroiyousei)



Series: Saitou & Sano 'Verse 1 - Surprising/Unknown Romance [3]
Category: Rurouni Kenshin
Genre: Canon Setting, Drama, Established relationship for main couple(s), Fluff, Language (general), Language (religious), M/M, POV: Kaoru, POV: Sano, Queer Saitou, Queer Sano, Sex (Explicit)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-05-14
Updated: 2006-05-14
Packaged: 2020-06-23 12:31:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19701421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuroiyousei/pseuds/ky%20old%20RK%20stuff
Summary: Kaoru is a little dense when it comes to what’s going on in Sano’s life.





	Responsibility

Sano had been even lazier today than usual, ever since he'd come staggering through the doors, practically dragged himself onto the porch, and flopped down into an abjectly idle position he'd then retained for the next several hours. It was getting on Kaoru's nerves. 

"Sanosuke!" she chided as she passed him for perhaps the sixth time and found the sight of his utter stillness just too irritating to be further put up with. "If you're going to hang around here all day, come help me with the chores!" 

Sano groaned. "No way... I'm too fucking sore to _move_." 

A glance at his body showed him, indeed, covered in bruises and scratches and Kaoru didn't know what else. "Well," she sniffed, "if you didn't spend all night getting _thrashed_ , you might not have that problem. And don't even try that old 'You should have seen the _other_ guy' line!" 

Sano's face went unexpectedly red. Kaoru couldn't help some inward pleasure at the sight: was her good sense somehow finally getting through to him? She took a step closer, intending to reiterate the scold just for good measure, but as she drew within smelling distance she found another subject to complain on instead. "Did you get into those awful tobacco things, or have you just been hanging out with people who smoke them?" Bending toward him she added with a grimace, "Ugh! You'd practically have to be _kissing_ them to smell this bad! Sano, please tell me you haven't taken up smoking yourself?" 

Sano blushed more intensely than before, and consequently Kaoru approached satisfaction more closely than before: for him to realize he was in the wrong, that his indolent lifestyle was a burden to those around him, must be a step in the right direction -- and _she_ had been the one to convince him of it at last! 

"No," he mumbled, "I don't smoke." 

"Good," she replied with a decisive nod, though not entirely sure she believed it. "Now come help me with the chores." 

Despite his apparently increasing awareness of her wisdom, it took some bullying to get him up and moving, and then she noticed he really did seem to be in pain: he walked very stiffly and slowly, and seemed to deliberately avoid certain specific motions. Her attitude a little softened, she gave him a relatively easy inside task that even a stupid drunkard of a brawler that might have taken up smoking couldn't botch. She hoped. 

Just to be sure, she went in to check on him after a few minutes -- only to find him nowhere near where he was supposed to be. Instead, he'd sneaked into the kitchen. Assuming he was looking for a covert snack while her back was turned, she prepared to do some tiptoeing of her own and give him a good whack on the head to pay him for his bad habits. But she stopped short in confusion when she observed he'd opened the cupboard where she kept spices and seasonings and seemed to be putting something into it rather than taking something out. 

"What in the world are you doing?" she asked, perplexed, before she remembered her goal of stealth. 

He jumped, and whirled to face her with a visage even redder than before. "I... last night I noticed you were out..." he stammered, "so I thought I'd... get you some more..." 

"Out of what?" she inquired, coming closer and peering past him at the bottle he'd placed in the cupboard. "Is that cooking oil? Wait -- are _you_ the one who's been using it? I ran out yesterday making lunch and wondered how in the world I was going through it so fast! What can you have been doing with it? You don't _cook_ , do you?" She stared at him skeptically. 

He cleared his throat and scratched his head. "Yeah, actually, I've been trying a little of that lately." 

Kaoru had to laugh. "Well, I don't see what's so embarrassing about _that_. Next time just tell me, and I'll let you use whatever you need." She beamed at him. "I think it's great that you're trying to take responsibility for feeding yourself!" 

*

"So eventually I hadda promise sometime I'd come over and make dinner for everyone," Sano finished with a grimace as he sank into the steaming water and sighed. 

Saitou chuckled. "Time to learn to cook, then." 

"Time to sneak some bento into the dojo's more like it," Sano grumbled. "And _you_ getta pay for it." 

"It's your own fault for not thinking about being prepared for things until five minutes beforehand." 

"And since when is it my responsibility to provide lube anyway?" 

"It's your ass." 

"But _you're_ the one stretching it out of shape, bastard!" 

Saitou, always in a good mood in the bath, just smirked somewhat lazily. 

Sano laid his head back with a groan. "Just for future reference, spit is _not_ enough. It might be _days_." 

Despite the dire quality of this pronouncement, Saitou was still smirking. 

"You think it's funny," Sano growled, "but it's your fucking fault!" Standing abruptly with an upward rush of water and turning as it splashed back down, he bent over and demanded, "Does this look comfortable to you?" 

Saitou's eyes glinted, though he was simultaneously amused at the unceremonious display. "Comfortable for you or for me?" he wondered, moving across the bathtub to where Sano's posterior was making such an undignified exhibition. Sano was about to reply angrily to this flippancy, but Saitou silenced him by adding, "It does look unusually red, though," and running his tongue over the sensitive spot. 

Well, to say that _silenced_ Sano is not quite right, for he made some interesting noises, but it did keep him from protesting. 

"Don't think this means you get to fuck me later," he eventually gasped, once words ceased entirely eluding him. 

"I wouldn't dream of it." Saitou managed somehow to sound chaste and terribly sarcastic in the same breath before going back to his task. 

"Yes, you would," Sano contradicted, "you dirty old-- god!" 

"Certainly the first time anyone's ever called me _that_ ," Saitou remarked thoughtfully, and reached a hand up and around to see if his actions had brought about the anticipated result. 

Sano leaned both elbows against the tile floor around the bath and moaned loudly. 

Being irresponsible had very mixed consequences.


End file.
